Syndicate: [Fwd: Autonomous Women's Center: Activity Report]

[Zarana Papic <zpapic@f.bg.ac.yu>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Autonomous Women's Center: Activity Report
Date: Wed, 19 May 1999 18:57:02 +0000
From: "Women's Center Belgrade" <awcasv@EUnet.yu>
To: Zarana Papic <zpapic@f.bg.ac.yu>

Autonomous Women's Center 
Against Sexual Violence
tir{ova 5a, beograd, serbia
tel: 381.11.645.328
fax: 381.11.687.190
e-mail: awcasv@eunet.yu



    activity report during the war time 
  from 25 of March - 24th of April 1999


ACTIVE SUPPORT IN OVERCOMING FEAR OF WOMEN


After the first night of bombing, 24th of March  the law of war was
ordered.  Fear became the fact of life overnight...  the activists of
Women's Center decided to start calling women over the phone to ask
them how are they, to give them space for overcoming fears.  Until
this moment, already six years, the work of Autonomous Women's Center
was based on ethical principle that implies that the service is give
to women when they ask for it, when they call or come to the Center. 
The fear in the wartime has moved the borders of private and public
and therefore we transgressed the principles of work.  Every women
became a possible client, at least for a moment.  Connecting with each
other, calling on the phone, asking women how do they feel... became
legitimate activities of the Women's Center.  Once again, the women's
solidarity inspired many women.  That is how  we started the active
telephone support for women in overcoming fear.


-active phone counseling
........................................

The counseling phone work is based on the feminist principles 
of psychological counseling as well as on the experiences in working
with women in fear in the war in Bosnia from the therapists  in the
Women's  Therapy Center Medica Zenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Fear Counseling Team decided on active calling women 
for different reasons.  First because in the war situations women are
less mobile and do not leave their homes often.  Second, they feel
their homes as the only safe place, most of the times, then, the
telephone bill is paid by the Women's Center, which is a very
important factor in the times of war when the poverty is increasing
and  women cannot relax to talk about themselves if they know they
cannot pay the bill.  

documenting the feelings of fear
..................................................

Autonomous Women's Center Against Sexual Violence, from its 
foundation in 1993, believes in the anti-war anti-military politics,
in multi-nationality as well as in spreading solidarity with women
from the other side of the front line.  In the present situation
Women's Center is documenting feelings of women who are in fear of
NATO bombing and entire war situation, as well as feelings of women in
Pri{tina and other parts from Kosovo that are  going through
particular processes of fear,  terror and pain.

-documenting calls
 - In the first 25 working days, five counselors gave 378 
telephone counseling to women from 34 towns in SR Yugoslavia.  
Statistics of Women's Center show that 232 counseling phone 
sessions were done with women in Belgrade and others from women 
in other towns including regions Vojvodina, Sandzak, Montenegro 
and Kosovo.  From all the calls, 87% of calls were initiated in the
Center.

-documenting statements of fear
 The Women's Center is documenting all types of fears and 
forms in which fear is manifested.. in body, in dreams, in behavior,
in thoughts...   From the statements it is easy to conclude that life
of every women has changed, that emotional states are changing very
often during a day,  that emotions that are most dominant is the
desperation and anxiety as well as tendency to survive and to adapt to
the limited conditions of life.

"I am in a horrible fear" "i  fear  the night"  "i am afraid to go out
further than the grocery shop" " I don't go out"  " i sleep in the
house of my friend"  " I cannot concentrate" "I am sensitive on all
the sounds"  "I have fear of mobilization for my brother"  "when
sirens starts i feel nauseatic"  "i have lost  4 kilos, i broke down
psychologically" " every night i go to the shelter, i feel bad" "when
i see soldiers on the street i shudder" "I feel i dropped out from the
tracks, everything changed in my life"  "I am worried for my future"
"I am constantly on the sleeping pills" "I sleep  all dressed up"
"children in the shelter are very disturbed" "On my work place men
started to drink intensively'  "I am nervous" "I am not afraid of
death but I am afraid of sudden sounds" "It is killing me that i
cannot work anything any more" "My emotional state is changing every
hour"   "i threw out the TV set, I cannot listen to that language
anymore"  "neighbors are talking apocalyptic gossips all the time"  "I
am nervous, I go from the shelter to the flat three times in one
night" "I feel like leaving this country forever, it is so nauseate"
"new fears are coming"

-documenting statements about mechanisms of survival
 Active role of the Fear Counseling Team of the Women's 
Center is to support mechanisms of survival in women and their 
positive experiences.  Supporting healthy dimensions of behavior,
feelings and thoughts is the main form of the active support of women.

"I am feeling good, i have gone through one war already, i know the
rules"  "I am concentrated and rational i have enough information" "I
feel  good, i am supporting other women"  "I am cleaning the house all
day"  "I am walking up and down the town all day"  "I spend hours on
e-mail"  "I have planted many plants"  "I am taking my children to the
hills"  "We are hugging all day"  "I am taking sleeping pills, and it
works for me"

 -documenting statements of women of Albanian nationality in 
Kosovo
 The Fear Counseling Team has been calling women and 
activists in Pristina and  on Kosovo actively first two weeks after
the beginning of the NATO bombing. The Women of serbian nationality
have stated their fears of  bombing, the women of albanian nationality
apart from  fears of bombing had much  stronger fears of serbian
officials, army and police ("of green, blue and masked men").  After
first two weeks many women of Albanian nationality have been forced to
leave their homes, as they said,  in front of the soldiers who had
machine guns  and spoke serbian language.  After that, with their
families they were forced to go to the buses of trains that took them
close to  the Macedonian border.  From Macedonia some of them have
called us to tell us that they are alive and healthy and from some of
them we heard parts of the humiliation stories and terror they had to
go through in the meantime.

 "I am terrorized"  "strange silence is horrifying me"  "we are 
sitting in the dark every night, i cannot sleep nor eat, but i have
coffee and cigarettes"  "we don't get out of homes at all, not even
during the day"  "I don't know what to tell you nor what to think, I
am still alive"

-workshops about feelings
 In the first month the Women's center has organized four workshops
with the title How do we feel.  The exchange of negative and positive
experience have been of paramount importance for participants to feel
they are not alone in their fears and to be supported for their
positive feelings. ....

Autonomous Women's Center Against Sexual Violence continues 
the active telephone support of women and will continue to issue
reports and analysis of data obtained.   



The Fear Counseling Team:
biljana maletin, bobana macanovic,  bosiljka janjusevic,
lepa mladjenovic, sandra tvitic


autonomous women's center
against sexual violence
belgrade, tel/fax: 381.11.687.190
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